SA School Sports

The St Charles College first XI cricket team have never won the KZN Inland region T20 tournament, hence the dream of competing for the KZN Dolphins Franchise gold medal match has never materialised. 

Three years ago an article on a little known 12 year old cricketer living in Zimbabwe read, “…Wesley Madhevere is a name that is likely to set the stage alight in international cricket if the right mentorship and resources are invested in this 12 year old from Chitungwiza.”

In former Springbok flyhalf Braam van Straaten the Pietermaritzburg school St Charles College have unearthed a gem.|

The Grade 9 St Charles College student has been selected for the SA Schools team after a successful golf tour after taking part in the SA High Schools Inter Provincial Tournament.

In the never ending quest to produce a competitive rugby ethos many schools have turned their attention to procuring the services of a professional coach or specialist to help bolster their fortunes in the sport.

Philip de Charmoy, a St Charles College student in Grade 10, recently jetted off with his U16 South African Basketball teammates to Botswana to compete in the Under 16 Afro-Basketball Qualifiers.

Pietermaritzburg attorney Pranesh Indrajith, who resorted to the High Court in an attempt to have his son reinstated as the first team cricket captain at St Charles College, has lost his case last week after the judge ruled he had no legal right to meddle with the internal affairs of the school - and even if he did, he would not have found in the father's favour, says a report in The Mercury.

Glenwood Wrap up Cricket Season with a Win

The final cricket match for Glenwood took place in Durban on Saturday 2 November, 2013 as they took on the dangerous St Charles team. Fortunately the rain stayed away allowing for a full day of exciting school boy cricket. St Charles won the toss and chose to bat first and the openers initially survived the opening spell but eventually lost their first wicket when St Charles opener Z Kourtsouris edged one to the slips giving Glenwood’s C Pearce his first wicket. A few errors in the field allowed for a 3^rd wicket stand of 58 between M Mortman (43) and B Philpott (52) before A Phehlukwayo broke the partnership. From then onwards the St Charles batsmen couldn’t maintain a decent partnership and lost wickets at irregular intervals. Glenwood’s spinner S Nhlebela proved to be a problem for the batsmen and was managing to use the pitch to his advantage taking 3-31 in his 10 overs. St Charles eventually ended their innings on 199/9 in their 50 overs.

Glenwood’s innings started slowly and the loss of 2 quick wickets didn’t help their cause as they reached 41/2 after the 10^th over. The powerful G Wissing managed to hit a quick 28 but it was the 4^th wicket stand of 90 runs between A Phehlukwayo (85*) and M Hay (27) that helped Glenwood chase down the target. Phehlukwayo’s mature innings of 85 not out consisted of four 4’s and four 6’s proving to be a major contributor to Glenwood’s 4 wicket win. Glenwood High will now focus on the T20 series for the remainder of the year and hope to keep up their unbeaten streak in this year’s series.

A season of some of the world’s best school boy rugby has all but come to a close and for the players who ran out for the last time for their school they will be left with that supreme pride that comes from wearing their teams badge and playing to their best ability. A memory that will live with them for decades.

It was a tightly fought season which saw three teams vying for the top spot almost from the start of the season and at various stages all three, Affies, Outeniqua had a taste at being the number one side in the country.

However it is perhaps fitting that it is Affies who can lay claim to the top team in South Africa after completing the season without being defeated, without drawing and winning every single match. It is a supreme effort by a side that played the country’s most powerful teams and still remained competitive scoring heavily in most of their matches.

It is perhaps a pity that somewhere along the line Affies and Paarl Gim never met, as on paper there was very little to choose between the two teams, however Gimmies were held to a surprise draw by Oakdale in what was their only ‘blemish’ on an otherwise spotless season so perhaps finishing in second spot is justified.

A strong finish by Grey College, after an indifferent start to their season put pressure on Outeniqua for the third spot, but the consistency of Outeniqua helped them to finish in the Top three after suffering just the one defeat at the hands of Paarl Gim.

It was another great season and our thanks to the thousands of players, coaches and the avid fans of schoolboy rugby that showed sustained interest in the rankings, offered advice and suggestions and supported us. Rankings are not an absolute science but by factoring in the strength of the opponents, margin of victories and the actual results it is hoped that a team’s current form can be judged.

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THE school at the centre of a row over the dropping of a schoolboy as its cricket captain because of a drop in form has revealed that the boy had scored only 17 runs in seven matches.

The unbeaten run continue for Paarl Gim and Affies who brushed aside this week’s opposition with very little worries.

Victories by Paarl Gim, Affies and Grey College consolidated their status as the leading teams in the country as the second half of the school rugby season kicked off this past week.

As reported in The Mercury , the former head of cricket at St Charles College in Pietermaritzburg, who was fired for allegedly getting involved in a spat between the school and the aggrieved parent of a cricketer, will challenge the decision at the CCMA on July 10.

A high pedigree Cape School’s Week dominated proceedings in the SA School Rugby scene this past week where there were one or two surprise results and some expected victories for the big names.

The top five all recorded wins over the weekend which ensured that their positions didn’t change and it is a pity that the much anticipated Kearsney v Maritzburg College had to be cancelled due to a flu epidemic.

Please note that two outstanding results for Pretoria Boy’s High have been included which had a small bearing on this week’s rankings. This weekend there is the big “Battle of the Jukskei” when Pretoria Boy’s meet St. John’s College which will give both teams a chance to move up the table.

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A huge effort by Oakdale finally has brought the mighty Paarl Gim bulldozer to a temporary halt although they will no doubt feel the 17-17 draw was more of a speed hump than an arrestor bed.

The Wynberg machine continues on its merry way with yet another victory in what is turning out to be an outstanding season for the Cape Town outfit.

It was yet another emphatic win by Paarl Gim who managed to steam roll their way over Wynberg to keep their dream of remaining unbeaten very much alive at this stage of the season.

Facing the possible thought of slipping out of the Top 10 Maritzburg College faced a mighty challenge from Glenwood who on their day are able to mix it with the best in the business.

Waterkloof fought bravely in their match against Affies and almost pulled off one of the upsets of the season this past weekend.

Wynberg clinched two comfortable victories in the past week to cement themselves on the No.1 spot although the chasing pack is not far behind.

There are now two unbeaten teams occupying the top two positions and virtually nothing separates them at this stage of the season.

Paarl Gim managed a clean sweep at the Wildeklawer tournament to keep their number one spot secure after having now strung together a run of eight wins on the trot.

A supreme effort from Paarl Gim against Outeniqua over the weekend catapulted Gimmies into pole position and in the process extended their unbeaten run this season.

The rugby season is in full swing with most of the teams having started their 2013 campaign and as the second school term starts there is going to be nonstop action for several months to come.

Some of the country's top hockey players and teams will congregate on the astroturf in various parts of the country in what promises to be a competitive season.

The first term is over and the cricket kit is put away for a few months before old rivalries resume near the end of the year.

St. Alban’s College 50^th Independent Schools Cricket Festival:

Once again some of the top teams from around the country will gather at St.Alban’s College for the annual Independent School’s Cricket Festival.

Swimming: Clifton Win Independent Schools Gala:

So how are the rankings worked out? In consultation with a panel of analysts and statisticians a formula was agreed upon which would allow as realistic a representation of a team’s current form as possible. In essence the formula works as follows:

At the start of the year teams are “seeded” based on how they finished last season. They are seeded from 10 to 1 with 10 going to the teams that are judged the strongest. (This seeding is adjusted after the first term and at the end of the year depending on how well the teams finish.)

Points are awarded for “Win”, drawn matches and teams are also awarded “Bonus Points”. The “bonus points” are awarded depending on the margin of victory that has been obtained. 10 bonus points are given for a 10 wicket win and a 100 or more runs win, 9 bonus points for a 9 wicket win and 90 run win etc.

However in order to grade the win the particular “seeding” of each team plays a part. For example: Paarl Boy’s (seeded 9) beat Pinelands (seeded 7) by 100 runs. Paarl Boys are therefore awarded points for the win, however instead of receiving 10 bonus points for winning by 100 runs, they get 10 points x 0.7 (Pineland’s seeding of 7) = 7 bonus points. If Pinelands were seeded 6 the bonus points for Paarl Boy’s would be 10 x 0.6 = 6 bonus points. This helps to grade the win which was against a weaker team and therefore Paarl Boy’s do not get the full allotment of 10 points. However the converse is also true. If Pinelands (seeded 7) beat Paarl Boy’s by 100 runs, their bonus points would be 13 because they beat a team that was seeded 10. The weaker team is therefore rewarded for beating a higher seeded team.

The win points and bonus points are divided by the matches played to give an average which ultimately ranks the team. Statistics of course only can tell half the story although we do believe that having a quantitive formula and not just relying on a “Win ratio” model is a fairer reflection of the strength of teams.

We are continually looking to improve and tweak the formula and welcome your input. Thank you to the literally hundreds of emails from players, coaches and fans and your unending suggestions, your support and interest is greatly appreciated.

Don't underestimate the KZN U19A Inland side that has just been selected just because they haven't played much cricket due to the rain in the KZN, they are a strong outfit that will pose a few problems for the teams they meet at the end of the year.

It was never going to be easy to establish the country’s first School Cricket Rankings but after many hours and consultations with coaches and players we embraced the task of finding a believable equation that could give a fair reflection of current form.

The Michaelmas Cricket Week has been a feature of the South African cricket season for 53 years.